British cycling champion hopes to set new world record in Oman

British cycling champion and former round the world cyclist Jonathan Shubert will attempt to cycle 1,300 kilometres across Oman in under 48 hours, setting a new world record if he is successful.

His most challenging feat of physical endurance to date, Shubert is set to start the record attempt this Sunday from Oman’s capital city, Muscat, in the north and travelling from here across the country to the southern city of Salalah.

The current record for this distance is six days. Shubert, who is currently working at a British school in Oman as a science teacher, says that according to his calculations he should be able to reach Salalah in 36 hours.

Jonathan Shubert hopes to set a new world record by cycling 1,300km across Oman

Partnering up with humanitarian charity Lifting Hands International, Shubert will be raising funds to support refugees in northern Iraq who remain without basic provisions. “After living and working in the Middle East I feel compelled to do something to help people affected by the terrible conflicts that play out in this region of the world.”

“As a former British 24-hour national cycling champion and round the world cyclist, it only seems appropriate that I support Lifting Hands International in the best way I know how; by riding my bicycle.”

Between March 2013 and March 2014 Shubert embarked on an unassisted, 30,000-kilometre circumnavigation of the globe, by bicycle, passing through 29 countries and three continents.

Only three weeks after completing his round the world expedition, Shubert fulfilled another life dream: cycling an unparalleled 835 kilometres in a single day to become the 2014 British 24-hour time trial champion.

Social media users are able to track Shubert’s record attempt on ub-cool and via their live InstaStories @ub.cool.

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For permissions beyond the scope of this license, please contact us.